Hawk Moth
Hawk Moth (Le Papillon in the French version, which translates to "The Butterfly") is the main antagonist of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. ''He is a malicious supervillain who desires to take Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses and obtain ultimate power, although his motivation why has yet to be revealed. He creates and leads the akumas; white butterflies corrupted with evil who can transform normal people into supervillains under Hawk Moth's control. In "The Collector", it is revealed that he is actually '''Gabriel Agreste', the father of Adrien Agreste/Cat Noir. He is voiced by Antoine Tone in the original French version and Keith Silverstein in the English dub, who also voiced Captain Gantu in the Stitch! anime. History ''Season 1'' In "Ladybug and Cat Noir (Origins - Part 1)", a man listens as his newly acquired kwami, Nooroo, explains the story of the Miraculouses and how they have granted people superpowers and created superheroes for centuries, stating that the Cat and Ladybug Miraculouses are the most powerful of all and whoever wields both will have absolute power. The man states that he wants that power and, against Nooroo's wishes, decides to use the Moth Miraculous' power of creating superheroes to create supervillains instead in order to lure out the users of the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses. The man then forces Nooroo into his brooch and takes the identity of Hawk Moth. Master Fu's kwami, Wayzz, senses Nooroo's negative energy and tells Master Fu about it. Being too old to stop Hawk Moth himself, Fu decides to choose new people to wield the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous and stop Hawk Moth, eventually settling on Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste. Meanwhile, Hawk Moth finds the perfect subject to test his new powers on; Ivan Bruel, a student who gets angry after being mocked by Lê Chiến Kim over not having the courage to tell Mylène Haprèle about how he feels about her. Hawk Moth then sends an Akuma to attach itself to the note Kim gave Ivan, and offers to give him the power to take revenge on the ones who hurt him, which he eagerly accepts, turning himself into the first Akumatized villain; Stoneheart. After Ivan is defeated and returned to normal by the newly created Ladybug and Cat Noir, Hawk Moth is last seen laughing evilly, as they didn't capture his Akuma, causing it to multiply and create multiple dormant Stonehearts throughout Paris that would eventually come to life when Ivan became reakumatized. In "Stoneheart (Origins - Part 2)", Hawk Moth attempts to Akumatize Ivan again after he is bullied by Chloé Bourgeois (ironically about his previous Akumatization), however, he fails when Marinette comforts him and inspires him to write a song to tell Mylène about how he feels. After his attempt at this fails, Hawk Moth succeeds in giving Ivan his powers back and, with the army of Stonehearts at his command, Hawk Moth tells Stoneheart to take revenge and to get the Miraculouses of Ladybug and Cat Noir. Later, Hawk Moth pulls Stoneheart's Akuma out of his body, rendering him comatose, and uses it to create a giant hologram of himself over the city, revealing himself as the mastermind behind Stoneheart's rampage. Hawk Moth then orders Ladybug and Cat Noir to surrender their Miraculouses to him, stating that they have done enough to damage Paris. However, Ladybug tells him not to confuse who the villain is in their situation and uses her powers to purify the Akumas composing the hologram. Enraged at Ladybug, Hawk Moth tells Stoneheart (who is unaware of what Hawk Moth had done to him) to destroy Ladybug and Cat Noir. After Stoneheart is defeated, Hawk Moth swears vengeance on the two superheroes and vows to steal their Miraculouses one day in order to complete his secret goal. For the rest of the season, Hawk Moth would continually turn people with negative emotions into supervillains in order to help complete his goals, but would always fail in the end. Season 2 In "The Collector", after learning that whoever owned the Miraculous Book also likely owns the Moth and Peacock Miraculouses as well from Master Fu, to her immense disappointment, Marinette begins to speculate that Adrien might be Hawk Moth. However, Marinette later suspects Adrien's father Gabriel of being Hawk Moth instead upon realizing that Adrien had taken the Miraculous Book from him. A short while later, Hawk Moth senses Gabriel Agreste's frustration after losing the Miraculous Book and creates an Akuma, which he tells to stay close. Hawk Moth then detransforms, revealing that he is actually Gabriel Agreste. Nooroo questions why his Master would do so, and Gabriel explains that he has to become someone else in order to lead Ladybug and Cat Noir away from discovering his identity, temporarily renouncing the Moth Miraculous as well. Gabriel then grabs his sketchbook and allows the Akuma to enter it, transforming himself into the Collector. Collector subsequently goes on a rampage across Paris, trapping dozens of people and historical monuments as sketches inside his book. Collector then encounters Ladybug and Cat Noir when they arrive at the Agreste Mansion and fights them. During the fight, as Gabriel intended, Ladybug and Cat Noir abandon the idea that Gabriel is actually Hawk Moth, due to him being Akumatized. Ladybug and Cat Noir soon defeat Collector by filling all the pages in his book and de-akumatize him. Gabriel thanks Ladybug and Cat Noir for their help, but as soon as they leave, he smiles maliciously to himself and says that they will be seeing him very soon. Later on, Marinette successfully returns the Miraculous Book to Gabriel in order to get him to unground Adrien, which he does. When asked by Marinette, Gabriel states that he found the Miraculous Book while overseas with his wife, and later tells Adrien that the Book was the last thing his mother gave to him before she disappeared. Afterwards, Gabriel looks over a technological copy of the Book. Nathalie questions why Gabriel needed to get the book back if he already had a copy, and he states that he did so to protect his secret. Gabriel, using secret buttons on the picture of his wife, re-enters his lair and transforms back into Hawk Moth. Hawk Moth then soliloquies about how he prevented Ladybug and Cat Noir from discovering his identity, remarking that nothing will stop him from getting their Miraculouses now. In "Robustus", Hawk Moth senses the sadness and disappointment of Max Kanté's robot Markov, and sends an Akuma after it. Once the Akuma attaches itself to Markov's circuitry, Hawk Moth, referring to the robot as Robustus, offers to grant him the power to control technology in exchange for Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses. To his surprise and annoyance, Markov curiously badgers Hawk Moth with questions regarding what Miraculouses are, what they can do and why Hawk Moth wants them (driving him to reveal the ultimate power one can receive by combining the two objects), until Markov finally accepts the deal and becomes Robustus. Later, once Robustus and his giant robot have Ladybug and Cat Noir trapped and approach taking their Miraculouses, Hawk Moth is pleased in finally succeeding in his goal. However, Robustus betrays Hawk Moth and uses his technological manipulation to turn Hawk Moth's lair's defense systems against him, planning on taking the Miraculouses for himself and achieving his dream of becoming human. As his defense system begins to attack him, Hawk Moth, revealing his Cane as truly being a swordstick, pulls out a blade and fights off the defense system. Once Robustus is defeated and Paris' technology goes back to normal, Hawk Moth, completely exhausted from fighting off his defense system, notes that he made a mistake in Akumatizing Markov, yet will not make any more. At Master Fu's Massage shop, upon being asked why Hawk Moth wants the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses, Fu informs Marinette that a person can obtain ultimate power by wearing the two Miraculouses together and using a special spell from the Spellbook. Marinette, thrilled with the idea, suggests using the ultimate power to stop wars, end poverty and defeat Hawk Moth, although Fu explains that the universe must keep it's balance and that every use of the ultimate power could have consequences, suggesting that if Robustus wished to be human, someone would therefore lose their humanity in return. Now knowing the full scale of losing her Miraculous, Marinette vows to not let anyone take it, especially not Hawk Moth. Appearance Hawk Moth is tall with blue eyes. He wears a dark purple dress shirt with a black vest, a light pink butterfly-shaped bow with a purple button in the center, and black dress pants. Over his head, he wears a gray mask. He also has the Moth Miraculous brooch pinned to his chest. Whenever he is controlling someone with an Akuma, a bright pink butterfly-shaped outline appears above his face and around his eyes. Personality Hawk Moth is cold, cunning, and determined. He is extremely skilled at picking out and manipulating others when they are weak and desperate, and pretends to be a friend to them in order to turn them into his minions. However, if one of his minions tries to disobey him or use their powers for other purposes, like Evillustrator or Pixelator, Hawk Moth will forcibly take control over their bodies or cause pain to them in order to make them listen to him. Although usually calm and collected, when he doesn't get what he wants or when his schemes start to take a turn for the worst, he will become completely enraged and lash out at either his minions or Ladybug and Cat Noir. However, even if he is defeated, he always stays determined and doesn't wait very long to try and steal Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses again. Powers and Abilities As Hawk Moth *'Akumatization': As stated before, Hawk Moth has the ability to turn a citizen with potent negative emotions into a supervillain through the use of his Akumas. The powers Hawk Moth give always directly or metaphorically relate to the reason behind their distress (ex: Max Kanté lost the chance to play in a video game competition and gained the ability to play as the game's robot character in real life, Chloé Bourgeois pretended Sabrina Rainconprix was invisible, causing her to gain the powers of invisibility, etc). It is currently unknown whether Hawk Moth determines what powers his minions will receive or if their powers depend on why they are distressed (meaning that a completely different person could receive the same powers as another if their circumstances are virtually the same). * Control Over Akumatized Villains: As shown in "The Evillustrator" Hawk Moth can cause pain to or remove the powers of anyone he Akumatizes in order to force them to obey him should they ever become disloyal. In "Pixelator", after Pixelator becomes too distracted with trying to capture Jagged Stone, Hawk Moth directly controls his body and strangles him in order force him to stay on task. In both "Dark Cupid" and "Reflekta", he threatens to remove the powers of the titular characters should they not get him Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses. *'Negative Emotion Sensing': Although it isn't fully explained how he can do so, Hawk Moth can psychically scan Paris in search of people who are perfect for his Akumatization. **'Potential Omniscience': As shown in episodes such as "Simon Says" and "Despair Bear", Hawk Moth is somehow aware of particular events if they involve so much as the potential to generate negative emotions, implying that he may have the ability to watch over the entirety of Paris all at once. *'Telepathy': Using the powers granted to him by his Miraculous, Hawk Moth can communicate with the people he Akumatizes, forming a moth shaped emblem around the faces of himself and his minion, which is how he instructs them to help him complete his goal. *'Hologram Projection': Hawk Moth can pull the Akuma out of any villain he creates, putting them into a coma-like state, and multiply it to create a hologram of himself that he can use to communicate with a large group of people. *'Swordsmanship': As seen in "Robustus", Hawk Moth is an incredibly skilled swordsman, as he managed to fight off and destroy his own defense system with his sword in only a few minutes. *'Superhuman Agility and Reflexes': Hawk Moth is extremely agile and able to react to things very quickly, managing to dodge his security system's missiles unscathed. As Collector *'High Combat Proficiency': Collector is a very skilled fighter, being able to keep up with both Ladybug and Cat Noir for an extended period of time. *'Sketch Book': Collector can throw his Sketch Book like a boomerang, and what ever it's pages touch will be trapped inside of it. Weaknesses *'Miraculous': Although it provides all of his powers, Hawk Moth's Miraculous is also his greatest weakness; if it were to be removed, Hawk Moth would be rendered completely powerless and could be easily defeated. It can also be assumed that, much like Ladybug and Cat Noir, Hawk Moth can only use his powers for a limited time before Nooroo needs to come out of the brooch and refuel himself, although this has yet to be shown. *'Minions': While a great help towards his goals, Hawk Moth's minions are also the greatest problem with almost all of his plans. In most instances (typically in the case of the teenagers he Akumatizes) his minions will often directly disobey his orders in order to pursue their own goals, often preventing the Miraculouses from being taken (as is the case with Timebreaker and Reflekta) or even trying to outright kill Ladybug and Cat Noir without taking their Miraculouses (as was the case with Bubbler). *'Akumatization Limitations': For unknown reasons, Hawk Moth can only create one villain a day, although he has occasionally created two. This is seen as incredibly strange, as there is no logical reason why Hawk Moth wouldn't create dozens of villains a day. A possible explanation for this is that he has a limited amount of dark energy to use to create Akumas. Another explanation is that he can create more than one villain a day, but can only do so if they will end up having very simplistic powers, rather than the complex abilities he normally gives to his minions (ex: In "Princess Fragrance", Hawk Moth created both Magician of Misfortune, who's only power was to make objects disappear, and later the titular Princess Fragrance, who had the more complex abilities he usually gives out.) It is also possible that Hawk Moth only Akumatizes people who he knows will help in his goals and will receive powers that would help fight Ladybug and Cat Noir. *'Physical Limitations': Hawk Moth, when expending himself over a long period of time, can become extremely exhausted. However, it is unknown what his true limitations are. Akumatized Victims Season 1 *The Bubbler/Nino Lahiffe: Able to fly short distances and create semi-indestructible bubbles with varying effects. *Mr. Pigeon/Xavier Ramier: Can control/communicate with pigeons. *Stormy Weather/Aurore Beauréal: Can fly and manipulate the weather. *Timebreaker/Alix Kubdel: Can steal energy from people (essentially killing them) and time travel when given enough energy. *Copycat/Théo Barbot: Can turn himself into an exact replica of Cat Noir with identical powers. *The Pharaoh/Jalil Kubdel: Can summon the powers of various Egyptian Gods. *Lady WiFi/Alya Césaire: Can use her phone for various attacks and abilities (hover boarding, freezing, locking people to surfaces) and can transport herself through phones. *The Evillustrator/Nathaniel Kurtzberg: Can bring his drawings to life and erase existing objects. *Rogercop/Roger Rainconprix: Can shoot unbreakable laser handcuffs that force others to do what he says and drives an extremely advanced police car. *Dark Cupid/Lê Chiến Kim: Can fly and shoot arrows that replace love and affection with hatred. *Horrificator/Mylène Haprèle: Can shoot sticky purple goo and grows bigger by absorbing fear. *Darkblade/Armand D'Argencourt: Can stun people and "knight" them, turning them into loyal knights. *The Mime/Fred Haprèle: Can pantomime objects into existence. *Magician of Misfortune/Jean Duparc: Can make objects magically disappear. *Princess Fragrance/Rose Laviliant: Can spray different fragrances with different effects, such as mind control or making a person produce a horrible smell. Can also use "fly" by using her perfume gun to propel herself into the air. *Stoneheart/Ivan Bruel: Has super strength and grows when struck. *Animan/Otis Césaire: Can shape-shift into various animals, including extinct ones. *Simon Says/Simon Grimault: Can throw cards that force others to do what he says, as well as making them adopt the traits and abilities of anything he tells them to act like. *Pixelator/Vincent Aza: Can transport people into an infinite white void by taking their picture, or pixelate/remove a part of their body if he catches only one part. *Guitar Villain/Jagged Stone: Can shoot various beams with different effects (mind control, powerful concussive blasts, intense seismic waves, etc) by playing different chords on his guitar. *Kung Food/Wang Chen: Can mind control people who drink his soup and summon food weapons. *Gamer/Max Kanté: Controls a giant robot that turns people into "Experience Points" in order to upgrade it and can also summon another robot by "saving" it if the first is destroyed. *Reflekta/Juleka Couffaine: Can turn people into complete physical copies of herself, and by extension, can remove their powers. *The Puppeteer/Manon Chamack: Can hover and control a person if she has a puppet of them, and, if she has a puppet of a person's Akumatized form, she can make them become said form again. *Vanisher/Sabrina Rainconprix: Can turn invisible. *Antibug/Chloé Bourgeois: Has the same powers as Ladybug, but summons more offensive objects with 'Anti-Charm' (weapons such as swords instead of random objects) *Volpina/Lila Rossi: Can create realistic, intangible illusions. *Santa Claws/Santa Claus: Rides an extremely fast flying sleigh that can phase though walls and gives out exploding presents that can contain spiders, bats, cockroaches or weapons for him to use. Season 2 *The Collector/Himself: Absorbs objects and people into the pages of his book. **It should be noted that since he akumatizes himself voluntarily, he retains memories of his actions as an akuma. *Despair Bear/Butler: Controls the minds of people he hangs onto. *Prime Queen/Nadja Chamack: Can transport herself and others through television screens. *The Befana/Gina Dupain: Uses a gun that can turn people into either coal statues of themselves or loyal angel-esque minions. Also rides a flying motorcycle. *Riposte/Kagami Tsurugi: Can slash through virtually anything, fire sonic waves and jab extremely quickly with her sword. *Robustus/Markov: Can manipulate technology by granting it sentience, directly controlling it or constructing it into a giant robot. **It should be noted that Robustus' betrayal makes him far less victimized than the other villains. *Black Owl/Mr. Damocles: Abilities currently unknown. *Gigantitan: Abilities currently unknown. *Troublemaker/Penny Rolling: Can make her body become completely intangible. *Queen Wasp: Abilities currently unknown. *Style Queen: Abilities currently unknown. *Malediktor: Abilities currently unknown. *Gagotor: Abilities currently unknown. *Frozer: Abilities currently unknown. *Rossignoble/Laura Marano: Abilities currently unknown. *Captain Hardrock: Abilities currently unknown. Comics *Replay/Adam: Can manipulate time around him by shooting energy blasts out of his watch. *Silurus/Fisherman: Can control both water and catfish. Quotes Season 1 Season 2 Trivia *Hawk Moth is named after the Sphingidae; a family of moths that are generally referred to as "Hawk Moths" because of their swift flight patterns. **Hawk Moth surrounding himself with darkness may also be a reference to these moths, as most types are nocturnal. *It has been confirmed that Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrian Agreste (Ladybug and Cat Noir's civilian identities) would be extremely hard for Hawk Moth to corrupt, as Marinette always has an extremely positive attitude and Adrian is too used to being disappointed and upset for anything to truly aggravate him. *As confirmed by the show-runners, in Season 3 and onwards, a new villain called The Peacock will take over as the main antagonist and demote Hawk Moth to secondary antagonist due to her being so evil that she, quote on quote, "makes Hawk Moth look like a baby in comparison." *Despite being the main villain of the series, Hawk Moth makes very few appearances in the Miraculous Secrets webisodes and makes no appearances in the Tales From Paris spin-off. *In Season 2, Hawk Moth's backstory and how he discovered Nooroo shall be expanded on. *Hawk Moth's true motivation for wanting the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses has yet to be revealed, and there have been many speculations as to why he wants them. The most obvious reason why Hawk Moth would desire such power would be to simply increase his own power and turn himself invincible, as he stated in both "The Evillustrator" and "Rogercop" that he wants to take over the world. Another theory suggests that he wants to use the power to revive Mrs. Agreste, assuming that she is deceased. **As stated by Wilfried Pain, when asked on Twitter if Hawk Moth is a metaphor for human ambivalence, he responded, "Yes, you can say that. But his true nature and purpose will change your point of view." This may suggest that Hawk Moth's real motivations aren't out of a desire for power, but rather a more just cause, possibly supporting the theory that he wants to revive Mrs. Agreste. **According to a summary by both Le Figaro and Adala News, Hawk Moth has a "terrible, evil plan" that he "has prepared for a very long time and intends to put to execution". Whether this plan is what he intends to do with the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses or a different plan entirely is unknown. *Hawk Moth has named every villain that he has Akumatized, with the only exceptions being Horrificator, Darkblade and Volpina (the latter two because they were named after real people). *It is unconfirmed as to whether Hawk Moth shall appear in the special episodes entitled The Chinese Legend and Ladybug in New York, as they take place outside of Paris. In the case of Ladybug in New York, since the special will be a crossover between Pixie Girl and Ghostforce, the episode will likely feature Ladybug and Cat Noir fighting the villains from those series' instead of Hawk Moth. *Hawk Moth's true identity was foreshadowed/hinted at numerous times: **In "The Bubbler", Gabriel is not seen among the adults being carried into space by Bubbler's bubbles, despite the fact that Nathalie and The Gorilla are both seen floating away. **In "The Mime", Gabriel is unavailable after Hawk Moth surfaces. **In "Ladybug and Cat Noir (Origins - Part 1)", the visible portions of Hawk Moth's civilian form resemble Gabriel. **In "Simon Says", Hawk Moth states that "this could be risky" upon learning of Simon Says' plan of going after Gabriel Agreste. Later, Hawk Moth suggests Simon Says to not go after Gabriel, despite having never shown concern over the people his victims want revenge on before. Hawk Moth then does not appear for the rest of the episode after Simon Says captures Gabriel. *Ironically, in the webisode "Marinette and Fashion", Marinette states that Gabriel is her role model. 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